Bees in Trees

Today was an eventful day with the bees!

We went to a wild hive a little ways off of the farm, which was inside of a tree. We used a chainsaw to fell the tree and then opened up the side of the trunk to pull out the comb. A few new people came with us, and it was helpful to have a few extra hands using the smoker, cutting the comb out of the tree and tying up the comb into the frames. This went relatively smoothly, aided by our brand new 2-foot top bar hive! Dee and I varnished the siding to make it more weatherproof, but this had the added bonus of making the hive look super snazzy. Here it is!

We weren't able to find the queen, but a bunch of the bees were fanning the entrance - kind of a bee's way of saying "come home!" to the other bees from the hive. Hopefully they'll stay put! We'll be checking on them soon - maybe in a week.

Now stop reading here if you don't want to hear about random Jamaican life.

Life on the farm is always interesting. There are 5 dread-locked boys running around at all times, since they're home schooled. A few of them come with us to the bees and don't wear any veils or anything protective gear, despite being completely afraid of them! It's too funny.

Also, the food is good (I know Kim will want to hear about it for sure). I live with vegan Rastafarians, but yesterday we went to a party (with food!) and I ate curried goat, which is delicious. Goats were and still are my favorite animal :P
There's also a ton of fruit - especially mangoes, which you can just pick up off of the ground and eat. They are everywhere! They're in my shower, in the yard, on the pathways... just everywhere! There's also soursop and sweetsop, papaya, pumpkin, and these awesome sour fruit things called sorrel. It makes a delicious juice.

That's all for now!